Its northern terminus is at I-89 exit 22 near the village of Highgate Springs, Vermont, immediately south of the Canada–United States border.

US 7 in Connecticut (also known as Route 7, Ethan Allen Highway, and Super 7) is mostly a surface road but has two short expressway sections in the Norwalk and Danbury areas.

Exit 2 leads to Route 123 which extends from US 1 in Norwalk to the New York state line, passing through the town of New Canaan.

The expressway section ends at Grist Mill Road in Norwalk, about one-half mile (0.80 km) past exit 3.

US 7 and Route 202 then leave I-84 at exit 7 and travel on their own expressway for approximately eight miles (13 km) to just south of the New Milford town line.

The Brookfield bypass segment between exit 12 and the current expressway terminus opened in November 2009, after two years of construction.

Recent construction has also made large parts of US 7 between the terminus of the expressway and New Milford a four-lane divided highway with at-grade intersections.

US 7 leaves downtown Pittsfield as a two-lane surface arterial and continues as a rural highway with occasional three-lane stretches for climbing the grades along the Berkshires.

In Massachusetts, US 7 passes through the towns of Sheffield, Great Barrington, Stockbridge, Lee, Lenox, Pittsfield, Lanesborough, New Ashford, and Williamstown, before crossing into Pownal, Vermont.

Once complete, US 7 will utilize this new bypass, while the existing two-lane road into town will become part of Vermont Route 7A (VT 7A).

North of Wallingford, US 7 becomes a four-lane divided highway with at-grade intersections, until its southern junction with US 4, south of the city of Rutland.

In Vermont, it passes through the towns of Pownal, Bennington, Shaftsbury, Glastenbury, Arlington, Sunderland, Manchester, Dorset, Danby, Mount Tabor, Wallingford, Clarendon, and Rutland; the city of Rutland; the towns of Pittsford, Brandon, Leicester, Salisbury, Middlebury, New Haven, Waltham, Ferrisburg, Charlotte, and Shelburne; the cities of South Burlington (at which point I-89 begins to parallel it), Burlington, and Winooski; the towns of Colchester, Milton, Georgia, and St. Albans; the city of St. Albans; and the towns of Swanton and Highgate before ending at I-89 just south of the customs offices at the Canada–United States border.